An LTE user terminal needs to select, after being turned on, a suitable public land mobile network (Public Land Mobile Network, PLMN for short), further performs cell searching and cell measurement to obtain frame timing of peripheral cells and strength information of the cells, and then selects a suitable cell to receive broadcast information, so as to achieve synchronization with a severing cell and finally reside in a typical cellular system. Because a configuration and operation information in another channel of a cell is carried by a broadcast channel (Broadcast Channel, BCH for short), coverage implemented by receiving the BCH is crucial to successful operation of a system such as cellular communications. The broadcast information may be classified into two types:
(1) a master information block (Master information Block, MIB for short), which includes a limited quantity of most common transmission parameters, where these parameters are transmitted on a physical broadcast channel (Physical Broadcast Channel, PBCH for short), and are necessary for an initial access to a cell; and
(2) a system information block (System Information Block, SIB for short), which is multiplexed, at a physical layer, with unicast data transmitted on a PDSCH (Physical Downlink Share Channel, physical downlink share channel).
The PBCH has some special design requirements, for example, low system overheads and completely reliable reception on an edge of an LTE cell. The low system overheads of the PBCH may be implemented by carrying a minimum amount of information in the PBCH, because for a large amount of data, implementation of strict coverage causes high system overheads.
However, MIB information in a PBCH in the prior art includes a downlink system bandwidth (3 bit), physical HARQ indicator channel (Physical Hybrid ARQ indicator Channel, PHICH for short) structure information (3 bit), and 8-bit high bit of a system frame number, and a 10-bit idle bit, and therefore, there is totally 24-bit information, causing relatively high system overheads and poor coverage performance.